Comment by paulgb
2 years ago
> They are a good fit for hydro, wind, and solar, and nuclear where not using the energy means it’s simply wasted
This is a persistent myth in crypto circles, but it doesn’t match up with the financials of any company I’ve seen. Instead what happens is that once you’ve paid to build up mining capacity, particularly for mining rigs, any downtime is extremely costly.
Miners are always racing against the clock of increasing hashrate and the next halving.
What I mean is, if the price of electricity skyrockets temporarily, it’s very easy to stop mining. They are extraordinarily sensitive to prices given there is a direct relationship to electricity and mining pool payouts.
That’s true, but being a damper when prices skyrocket is different from being a damper on the predictable 24-hour output fluctuations of wind or solar.